NorthShore to pay $10.3M in case over COVID-19 vaccine mandate

NorthShore University HealthSystem has agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by employees who alleged the hospital system wouldn’t let them keep their jobs after they objected to getting COVID-19 vaccines for religious reasons.

Fourteen workers — including nurses, a pharmacy technician and a senior application analyst all named anonymously in the lawsuit — filed a lawsuit in October alleging NorthShore refused to grant them true exemptions from the mandate that all its workers get vaccinated.

NorthShore is not admitting to any wrongdoing as part of the proposed settlement agreement, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The agreement must still be approved by a judge.

As part of the settlement, NorthShore is agreeing to rehire workers who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated for religious reasons.

NorthShore, like other hospital systems, will still require its workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but, as part of the settlement, it is changing its exemption policy. Moving forward, it will review individual workers’ requests for religious exemptions, and if those exemptions are approved, NorthShore will work to accommodate them, regardless of their positions.

The workers had alleged that, at one point, NorthShore was denying almost all exemption requests and, when it began approving them, was telling employees they’d have to work remotely. Many jobs that involve direct patient care cannot be done remotely.

“We continue to support systemwide, evidence-based vaccination requirements for everyone who works at NorthShore — Edward-Elmhurst Health and thank our team members for helping to keep our communities safe,” NorthShore said in a statement Monday.

The Liberty Counsel, the organization representing the workers, says the agreement is the first class action settlement against a private employer involving a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the country. The Liberty Counsel describes itself as a Christian ministry that advocates for religious freedom

“It should send shock waves or a wake-up call, at least, to employers to follow the law under Title VII,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, referring to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. “A number of employers … have these blanket policies to get the COVID vaccine or be terminated without taking into consideration individual religious exemption requests.”

NorthShore estimates that about 523 of its workers were denied religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate between July 1, 2021, and Jan. 1 of this year, according to the proposed settlement agreement. Of those 523, about 204 got the vaccines after they were denied exemptions and 269 were terminated or resigned.

Lawyers representing NorthShore and the workers asked the court to allow the settlement to apply to all NorthShore workers who were fired or resigned or who got vaccines because they were denied religious exemptions.

If the settlement agreement and request for it to cover more than 500 workers are approved, workers who…